Mold apparatus



Feb. 27, 1968 MOLD APPARATUS 5 Sheets-Sheet l Filed April 20, 1965 Feb. 27, 1968 E Q. sYLvl-:sTr-:R

y MOLD APPARATUS Sheets-Sheet if;

Filed April 2O 1965 Feb. 27, 1968 E Q. SYM/ESTER MOLD APPARATUS Filed April 20,

E Sheets-Sheet J United States Patent Ofi-ice 3,3?,823 Patented Feb. 27, 1968 3,370,823 MOLD APPARATUS Edmund Q. Sylvester, 2749 Landon Road, Shaker Heights, Ohio 44120 Filed Apr. 20, 1965, Ser. No. 449,515 2 Claims. (Cl. 249-163) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE When castings are to be formed in permanent molds made up up of cope and drag sections, there is a problem of accurately aligning the two portions of the mold cavity which are formed in the cope and drag, respectively. In the present arrangement, the alignment is accomplished by providing mating surfaces associated with the cope and drag on opposite sides of the casting cavity when the cope and drag are assembled.

The present invention relates to mold apparatus.

The invention relates more particularly to mold apparatus for casting such items as billets.

A principal object of the invention is to provide such mold apparatus including novel means for aligning the mold parts.

Another object is to provide mold apparatus of the foregoing general character which includes novel construction for supporting the mold and each of the mold parts, on tracks.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the following detailed description taken in conjuntion with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE l is a small scale side elevational view of the mold apparatus made according to the present invention;

FiGURE 2 is a large scale side elevational view of the mold apparatus of FIGURE l;

FIGURE 3 is a large scale vertical sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIGURE l;

` FIGURE 4 is a large scale vertical longitudinal sectional view of the rear end of the mold apparatus, oriented according to FIGURE l;

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FGURE 3 showing a modified form of mold apparatus; and

FIGURE 6 is a vertical sectional view of an adjustable wheel structure included in the dot-dash enclosure of FIG- URE 5 and oriented in the direction of the latter figure.

Referring now in detail to the accompanying drawings, attention is directed first to FIGURES l and 2 showing the mold apparatus as a whole. The mold apparatus includes two main parts--adrag 1i? and a cope 12. Both the drag and cope include a main body 14 and 16 respectively, of graphite supported in steel supporting members. These supporting members include a bottom member 1S directly supporting the body member 14 and a top keeper bar 20. The supporting members associated with the ycope include a bottom keeper bar 22 and a top supporting member 24. The bottom supporting member 18 and the top supporting member 24 are essentially identical, but in relatively inverted positions. Fo-r example, the bottom supporting member includes a bottom plate 26 engaging the bottom surface of the graphite body 14, and side anges 2S engaging the sides thereof. Reinforcing fins or plates 30 are secured to the plate 26 to provide desired rigidity and strength. The side flanges 28 confine the body member 14 and secured to these anges, at spaced intervals along the mold apparatus (e.g., at four locations) are trunnions 32 supporting axles 34 or which are mounted Wheels 36. The wheels are arranged in pairs axially aligned transversely of the mold apparatus. The top supporting member 24 includes a similar arrangement of wheels 38.

The bottom and top supporting members 18 and 24 extend throughout the length of the mold apparatus, but the keeper bars 20 and 22 are of short length, lbeing disposed at several locations along the mold apparatus.

The main mold bodies 14 and 16 are separated by, and engage each other in, a longitudinal horizontal plane 40 and they are provided with V-shaped recesses 42 and 44 disposed so that when they are in mating relationship they together form a rectangular cavity 46 extending substantially the length of the mold apparatus. Thus the parting plane 4t? intersects the cavity at the horizontally opposite corners.

The keeper bars 2i) and 22 cooperate with the supporting members 18 and 24 respectively for gripping the corresponding mold bodies 14, 16 in rigid assembly. Bolts 43 interconenct the lower keeper -bar 20 with the lower supporting members 18 while similar bolts 5@ interconnect the keeper bar 22 with the upper supporting members 24. These lbolts may be arranged adjacent the ends of the keeper bars as shown in FIGURE l.

The keeper bars 20 and 22 are provided with mutual conformations to provide self-centering means for aligning the parts of the mold when they are fitted together. Each lower keeper bar 2i) includes a tongue 52 iitted in a groove 54 in the body member 14 while each upper keeper bar includes a tongue 56 fitted in a groove 5S in the upper mold body 16. The two tongues together form an enlargment, diverginU inwardly, positioned in a correspondingly shaped groove producing a tongue and groove arrangement.

The lower keeper bar 20 includes an inner horizontal surface 66, an outer horizontal surface 62displaced upwardly therefrom, and an inclined surface 64 interconnecting those two horizontal surfaces. Similarly the upper keeper bar 22 includes an inner horizontal surface 65, an outer horizontal surface 68 and an inclined surface 70 interconnecting those two horizontal surfaces.

The inner horizontal surfaces 66, 66 of the two keeper bars lay in the parting plane 4t) between the body members 14 and 16, while the outer horizontal surfaces 62, 68 lay in, or substantially in, a common plane offset from the plane titl, in this case upwardly therefrom. The diagonal surfaces 64, 7@ each lies in, or substantially in, another or diagonal plane interconnecting the first two planes. When the cope is fitted on the drag, the diagonal surfaces mentioned serve to center the two parts of the mold and align them in proper position. The dimensions of the various elements are such that space is normally provided between horizontal surfaces 60-66 and 62-68, and inclined surfaces 64I-7i), in order to assure firm engagement between the surfaces of the mold bodies in the plane 4i). Those spaces are shown highly exaggerated. The spaced or intermittent relation of the keeper bars along the length of the mold apparatus is sufficient to center and ali-gn the two parts of the mold throughout their length. The bottom supporting member 18 and the top supporting member 24 are continuous, and of substantial mass and strength to rigidly and otherwise properly support the graphite mold bodies throughout the length of the mold apparatus in conjunction with the spaced keeper bars and bolts connecting the supporting members and keeper bars.

The mold apparatus is arranged for riding on tracks 72 which the lower wheels 36 directly engage. The tracks 72 may be supported in any suitable manner on the iioor of the plant in which the mold is used, and extend thereabove to accommodate the low fins 3@ and other elements on the bottom of the mold apparatus.

The mold apparatus is moved along the rails in accordance with established operating routine and brought into and out of position for pouring, and into and out of other positions in which the mold apparatus is opened for removing the casting, etc. Pouring may be done through a pouring spout 74 shown here semi-diagrammatically. This pouring spout may be incorporated in an emplacement 76 arranged so that when the mold apparatus is for example moved up into engagement with it, the pouring spout is in pouring relation with the cavity 46. At the other end the cavity is closed by an insert 78 (FIGURE 4) which may be a porous sand plug, the details of which need not be entered into here.

The wheels 38 on the cope are brought into use when the cope is removed from the drag for removing the casting from the mold. The cope upon removdris inverted and placed on another set of tracks, enabling the cope to be wheeled along the tracks to a desired position for resurfacing, etc.

The mold apparatus remains in assembled position without positively securing the mold parts together. The weight of the cope is sucient to withstand the tendency of the head of the mold metal in the lled cavity to seep or run out through the space between the interengaged surfaces of the graphite body portions.

FIGURE 5 shows an arrangement generally similar to the arrangement described hereinabove but includes a plurality of cavities, in this case two, and multiple centering means. At the center of the graphite mol-d bodies 14, 16, is a tongue and groove construction Sti, the tongue portion being truncated as indicated at 82 for facilitating nesting. The keeper bars 20, 22 are provided with return-bend surfaces S4 which also provide a centering function.

-lt is desired that the mold apparatus be provided with means for adjusting the wheels thereonY both from the standpoint of correcting minor inaccuracies and for providing a predetermined inclination to the cavity for pouring purposes. Attention is directed to FIGURE 6 showing the detail structure of wheel construction enabling such adjust-ment, this construction being indicated in its entirety at 86 and included in the dot-dash outline of FIG- 98 is threaded through the top wall of the box and its.

lower end engages the slide bar 96. Upon adjusting the adjusting bolt downwardly it limits the relative upper movement of the wheel and consequently raises the corresponding portion of the mold apparatus.

IMold apparatus of the sizes here concerned for example 30 feet long, is subjected to great stresses tending to distort it, these stresses deriving from` any of various sources and regardless of the extent of the distortionV (in vertical direction) the adjustable wheel enables correction thereof.

Another advantage of the adjustable wheel is to provide for inclination of the cavity of the mold apparatus for pouring purposes. In pressure pouring, to which the apparatus of the present invention is particularly adapted, it is desired that the pouring er1-d of tbe cavity be lowermost so that the cavity inclines upwardly continuously from the pouring end so as to have a continuous upward lling operation without turbulence of the molten metal. The adjustable wheels as shown in FIGURE 6 enable the complete mold apparatus to be adjusted variously from oneV set of wheels to the next to provide the desired inclination of the cavity. This arrangement furthermore er1- ables such inclination to be maintained while moving the mol-d apparatus along the tracks into and out of the different positions it assumes.V l

While l have herein shown and described a preferred form of the invention, it will be understood that changes may |be made therein within the scope of the appended claims.

l claim:

1. A mold arrangement comprising a drag section and a cope section, each having a graphite body which form a casting cavity when theV sections are in assembled relationship and in contact along mating surfaces thereof, top support members along opposed upper edges of said cope section, bottom support members along opposed lower edges of said drag section, keeper bars along edges of the mating surfaces of said cope' and drag sections, said keeper bars being vertically displaced from and substantially parallel to the respective support members, bolts interconnecting said keeperbars and the Vrespective support members, the keeper bars of the cope section having centering surfaces coacting with mating centering surfaces on the keeper bars of the drag section, said centering surfaces lbeing .inclined relative to said mating surfaces. f

2. A mold arrangement according to claim 1 wherein sufficient play exists between the centering surfaces so as to enable the plane surfaces to come into firm engagement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 791,214 5/ 1905 Rockwood V164-394V 956,621 5/191() Bogenschutz 22--110 8,635 5/1910 Grunwald 22-11() 728,956 5/1903 Mitchell 22--90 670,695 3/1901 Tillet 22;--1 V10 115,214 5/1871 Jones 22--110 1,308,861 7/1919 Pack et al. 22--193 2,348,086 5/1944 Miller 2'2--191 1,428,359 9/ 1922 Christianson 22-110 I. SPENCER OVERH-OLSER, Primary Examiner.

V, K. RISING, Assistant Examiner. 

